Obama to Shift Focus to Budget Deficit

On this blog, you’ve learned how our political and financial leaders subtly lie to us – on almost a daily basis. You’ve also learned how truly inept many of our political leaders are – they do not understand what is happening or why. They do not understand that they are being manipulated by the global elite for evil purposes. They are flying blind in the middle of a hurricane and are looking for anything that they think might help. Unfortunately, the ‘solutions’ they are given for our current economic problems (by the Fed, the Treasury, our President, etc.) will only cause us more pain in the future. The endgame for all of this is the complete failure of the global financial system – but if you assume that everyone is trying to ‘help’ – then you are at a definite disadvantage.

You can see how a lack of Bible knowledge is used mightily by our enemy. Without a firm grounding in God’s Word – we assume that everyone is trying to do the ‘right’ thing – a seriously flawed assumption. God tells us that we live in a world ruled by evil and darkness. Our world is ruled by a spiritual being that is focused on one purpose – the destruction of the human race – and he has no rules. So, without Biblical knowledge – we build our decisions on flawed assumptions that are built on lies. We don’t heed our Lord’s warnings that we should always be on guard against our enemy’s schemes.

The Bible tells us that Satan ‘blinds’ unbelievers – you can now see how this happens. We focus on the world – and with no knowledge of the spiritual realm – we do not understand the motives behind what is happening in our physical world. We go right along with the flow of things – and never recognize that this is leading us to our destruction. You are beginning to see just how deceptive our true enemy is and why we cannot fight him by ourselves. We are dealing with a being that brings demonic power against us (spiritual warfare – for those who are mature, you understand what I’m saying here) and at the same time he can bring evil forces in our world against us. You and I do not have the intelligence or power to overcome such a being – which is why we must rely on the Lord to guide us and strengthen us. I know that Satan does not fear me – but I also know what he does fear. He fears what God is doing through me. He fears that God is giving me the ability to overcome this evil world. He fears what God is telling me to do – because I’m doing what I’m told to do. He fears these things because God is going to tear down his strongholds. The Lord’s light is going to shine in the darkness – and darkness cannot stand in the light. Lies do not hold up against the truth – get ready to watch them fall. This is what our enemy fears. This is why I’m doing the things I’ve been given to do. This is why I’ve been placed in the middle of the battle – to take a few hits here and there – and advance the message.

Occasionally, I come across an article that contains comments from our leaders that are so ridiculous, so lacking in common sense – that I cannot believe they are even published. The article below contains some of the most asinine statements I have heard over the past 6 months – and we’ve certainly heard many uninformed, ridiculous comments during this time. The statements below from our President lead me to believe that he (and the global elite) believe they can say whatever they want and we’ll buy it – hook, line and sinker.

The United States Congress just passed an $800 billion dollar ‘stimulus’ package that – when coupled with all of the other ‘stimulus’ packages – will add trillions of dollars to our Federal debt. In the same breath – we’re then told that the President is going to focus on ‘fiscal responsibility’ and schedule a ‘summit’. This has to be our government at its absolute lowest. Let’s completely disregard anything resembling fiscal responsibility and then hold a ‘summit’. Now we’re concerned about the long term effects of our debt? This is typical of our wasteful and incompetent leadership. How can you push for a bill that is bloated, full of pork, will do nothing to revive our economy and will contribute to the financial collapse of the United States - and then talk about fiscal responsibility? I’ll tell you how – you are either incompetent or you are full of deception. When it comes to our President, I believe it’s the latter. Let’s do something financially destructive and then try to convince people that you’re ‘concerned’ about the effects of your actions. Will the American people ever wake up?

jg – Feb 14, 2009
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Obama to Shift Focus to Budget Deficit

February 14, 2009
Wall St. Journal

By JONATHAN WEISMAN
With a $787 billion stimulus package in hand, President Barack Obama will pivot quickly to address a budget deficit that could now approach $2 trillion this year.
He has scheduled a "fiscal-responsibility summit" on Feb. 23 and will unveil a budget blueprint three days later, crafted to put pressure on politicians to address the country's surging long-term debt crisis.

President Barack Obama, left, meets Deere CEO Robert Lane at White House Friday. Obama defended his stimulus plan before business leaders.

Speaking Friday to business leaders at the White House, the president defended the surge of spending in the stimulus plan, but he made sure to add: "It's important for us to think in the midterm and long term. And over that midterm and long term, we're going to have to have fiscal discipline. We are not going to be able to perpetually finance the levels of debt that the federal government is currently carrying."

Along those lines, White House budget director Peter R. Orszag has committed to instituting tougher budget-discipline rules -- once the economy turns around. Those include a mandate that any "nonemergency" spending increases be offset by equal spending cuts or tax increases.

Officials say the budget blueprint to be released this month will also attempt to make public the full extent of the dire fiscal situation, by not repeating some of the accounting used in crafting President George W. Bush's budgets. Recent budget blueprints excluded from deficit projections the long-term costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those budgets also didn't include the cost of preventing the alternative minimum tax -- instituted in 1969 to ensure the rich didn't escape taxation -- from hitting the middle class.

Officials are examining whether to include those costs. The budget will project out 10 years, not the five-year forecast instituted by Mr. Bush. And with the stimulus cost, the fiscal 2009 deficit in the document is likely to exceed the $1.2 trillion forecast by the Congressional Budget Office last month.

Obama aides say they aren't looking for quick action, but a start to the conversation. "We're going to bring some things to the table, but we're going to listen to everybody else," said Christina Romer, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in an interview Friday. "It's a giant issue, and it's not one we can solve unilaterally."

The president met with 44 fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats this week and gave a nod to legislation that would set up commissions to deal with long-term deficit strains. The commissions would then present plans to Congress for an up-or-down vote.

"We feel like we've found a partner in the White House," said Rep. Charlie Melancon (D., La.), a Blue Dog co-chairman.

For Mr. Obama, the national debt has become a pressing dilemma. If he transitions too quickly from priming the economy with money to pulling back for the sake of fiscal rectitude, the president risks choking off whatever economic recovery he might spark in the next year. Ms. Romer points to the seesaw nature of the New Deal, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt would spend big one year and then back away the next, never allowing the economy really to get traction.

But if the administration waits too long to address the deficit, long-term interest rates may have to rise to attract buyers for all those Treasury bonds. That too could send the economy back into recession.

White House economic aides believe they have room to maneuver. Demand for Treasury bonds will remain strong for the next two to three years, a senior administration official said. But the White House also considers it imperative to signal how serious Mr. Obama is about a debt that could soar toward levels experienced by Japan, whose national debt equals the size of the country's economy. At just over 40% of gross domestic product, the U.S. debt is the country's highest in a decade.

That is manageable, administration economists say, but needs to be stabilized.
Projections for 2009 deficit range from Goldman Sachs's $1.43 trillion to $1.9 trillion from economic firm Strategas Research Partners. At 13.5% of GDP, a $1.9 trillion shortfall would more than double the peacetime record during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and approach the mark set in 1942 as the U.S. joined World War II.

Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com